In
1942 Don Gabor enlisted in the US Navy and became a US citizen. In
that same year he founded Continental Record Company Inc. One year
later Billboard lists the company's address at 263rd West 54th Street.
Home Office Executives are Donald H. Gabor, President, and Mrs. Donald
H. Gabor, Vice-president.

While
serving in the navy, his uncle took care of the newly founded business.
The catalog was small of course but would soon grow in significance
as Continental was releasing 78 rpm shellac recordings with ethnic
music aimed at immigrants of various nationalities. And there were
a few classical performers - mostly of emigrants too, and refugees
- who made recordings in the 1940s.

But
Donald Gabor
soon found his way into the New York Jazz Scene where many of his
Continental jazz recordings were made. If he himself was not the instigator
of some of the recordings, he obtained the acetates to be processed
to discs. Sessions were cut in clubs in "The Street" - not
far from Gabor's office - and in the Cafe Society. Selections were
played and sung by a variety of jazz artists, artists who had already
earned some recognition or were more or less new to the game and were
exploring a new style and sound named bebop.

"A
single New York City block - 52nd Street and Sixth Avenue -
was the very center of the jazz world during much of the Golden
Age. The ground floors of the brownstone houses that lined The
Street were jammed with night clubs, some featuring girly shows
and comedians but most specializing hot music.
For a decade The Street was heaven on earth to jazz fans. There
were the Onyx, the 3 Deuces, Downbeat, the Famous Door, Jimmy
Ryan's, Kelly's Stable, and - nearby - the Hickory House. They
formed a peripatetic audience, strolling from club to club to
check out the living legends performing on any given night."

William
P. Gottlieb
in The Golden Age of Jazz, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1979.
(Photograph courtesy William P. Gottlieb)

The
Continental Record Catalogue contained recordings (speed 78
RPM) made from 1944 on, and names like those of trumpet players
Louis Armstrong and Harry James; violinist Enoch Light;
humming bass player Leroy "Slam" Stewart; famous
singer Ethel Waters; drummer William "Cozy" Cole;
young Sarah Vaughan; pianists Dorothy Donegan, Clarence
Williams, Clyde Hart, Johnny Guarnieri, Hank Jones. And there
was pianist(!) Leonard Feather.
Feather, who came from Great Britain, started out as a jazz musician,
became a producer at the same time, and was an important reviewer
before he gave the world his "Encyclopedia of Jazz" - and
did not write an entry on himself in the book but only on the jacket
of this unique and fantastic compendium.

The
following list of Continental jazz records is not at all complete.
But the reference numbers were compiled from catalogs and publications
and the list shows that sales must have been significant in those
days of the 78 RPM shellac and became the foundation of Continental
Records Inc. and later Remington Records Inc., New York.

In
the category "sepia swing" is The Slam Stewart
Quintet with Slam Stewart (singing bass), Red Norvo (vibraharp),
Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Morey Feld (drums), and Chuck Wayne
(guitar). The titles are TALKING BACK (Red Norvo) and THE ONE
THAT GOT AWAY (Leonard Feather) on Continental C-10005.
The label pictured above is of the Dutch Continental release,
Made in Holland.

#C
10001:
Slam Stewart Quintet - The Voice of the Turtle + Time on My Hands

#C
10002: Slam Stewart Quintet - A Bell for Norvo + On the Upside
Looking Down

Leonard
Feather who was a pianist himself, became at one time Duke Ellington's
press agent, joined the staff of Esquire magazine as a writer,
made recordings for the Continental label of Sarah Vaughan (December
31st, 1944) and of many more artists for Gabor's label. He was
the promotor of so many but forgot to write an entry on himself
in his Encyclopedia of Jazz.Picture taken from the jacket of The Encyclopedia
of Jazz - Bonanza Books, New York, 1955/1960. Photo by Bengt
H. Malmquist.

J.C.Heard
(second from left) some 20 years later with Eddie Davis, Bill
Doggett, Milt Hinton and Eddie Vinson in the open air studio
of Disques Black & Blue, France. Image taken from the cover
of a 1978 release.

These
recordings were transferred to LP and issued on the Continental label
and later cleverly reissued on Remington long playing records in all
sorts of combinations. Originally seven ten inch Remington LPs were
released:

R-1024
Hot Jazz With Sarah Vaughan and the All Star Band
With Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Charlie Parker (alto sax), Flip Phillips
(tenor sax), Bill de Arango (guitar), Max Roach (drums), (released
in the fall of 1950, that was the time when Sarah Vaughan still was
listed in the section "popular music"). Mean to Me, Interlude,
What Can a Woman Do?, No Smokes Blues, East of the Sun, I'd Rather
Have a Memory Than a Dream, Signing Off, a.o.

R-1025
Ethel Waters in Shades of Blue
Taking A Chance On Love, Honey In A Hurry, You Took My Man, Cabin
In The Sky, I Shoulda Quit, Man Wanted, Am I Blue, Dinah
(released in the fall of 1950; dubbings of C 10006, 10007, 10008 plus
2 other songs).

Eventually
several titles were issued simultaneously on the Remington and on
the Plymouth label.
Side One of Remington RJ 500 features Sarah Vaughan singing
at her first, own record session on December 31st, 1944, produced
by Leonard Feather.

And
there were several Plymouth releases following the same strategy so
you never were sure if you did already own a certain performance.
It just could have been another take or the same one. Some where also
released on Pontiac, not listed in the Schwann and Long Player catalogs.

Gabor
issued the same titles on different labels and in different combinations.
These were not necessarily different takes. Adding some reverberation
to the signal could give the listener the idea that a different
recording was used. The same material from MSLP 5013 was issued
on the Paris label.

MASTERSEAL
MS-75
This was another compiltaion with reshuffled songs.On SIDE 1
Sarah Vaughan: East Of The Sun, Mean To Me - Sarah Vaughan
A Bell For Norvo, Time On My Hands - Red Norvo
Blues At Mary Lou's, D.D.T. - Mary Lou WilliamsOn SIDE 2
Little Girl From St. Louis, Kilroy Was Here - Dorothy Donogan
Thanks For The Memory, Esquire Jump - Coleman Hawkins
I Want Every Bit, That's The Blues - Trummie Young

Bell For Norvo and Jingle Bells by
the Slam Stewart Orchestra, together with Swinging the Blues and Eddie's
Blues by Eddie South Trio, were released on a 45 rpm disc.

Since
"The" All Star Jazz Band was led by Dizzy Gillespie and
also by Cozy Cole and on other occasions by Leonard Feather, some
of the same material can be found on Plymouth P-12-155, but then the
names of Red Norvo, Don Byas and Clyde Hart are explicitly mentioned.
Pianist Clyde Hart who was born in 1910 in Baltimore, died of tuberculosis
at the age of thirty five on March 19th, 1945 in New York.

Mark
Conlan wrote that there is another CONTINENTAL LP, called
"Hot and Cozy". There is however no listing of it
in the 1950s editions of Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog.On SIDE 1: six recordings by Oran "Hot Lips" Page
The Lady In Bed, Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You, Big 'D' Blues, They
Raided The Joint, Corsicana (an instrumental named after Page's home
town), Sunset Blues.On SIDE 2: has four selections led by Cozy Cole and two by
Red Norvo:
Look Here, Take It On Back, Comes The Don, Beat Bounce, Bouncy, Blues
at Dawn.

Some
of the recordings by Hot Lips Page and Rubberlegs Williams
made in 1944 and 1945 were issued on the French label Disques
Back and Blue, LP 33.008. These must have been licensed by
Don Gabor in 1966: Big D Blues, Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You, The
Lady In Bed, It Ain't Like That, Florida Blues, Race Horse Mama Blues,
The Lady In Debt, Corsicana, Willie Mae Willow Foot, Sunset Blues,
They Raided The Joint. On 33.008 there are four numbers by Rubberlegs
Williams: That's The Blues, I Want A Every Bit Of It, What's The Matter
Now, 4 F Blues.

Anthony
Barnett's book on Eddie South: BLACK GYPSY.

TRIP
Jazz Record TLP-5803 with a selection of recordings made by
The Dark Angel of the Fiddle and His Trio in 1944: Mad Monk,
Rose Room, Yesterdays, Rhapsody in Blue, Idaho, Tzigani in Rythm,
Dear Old Southland, Daybreak, Deep Purple, and Solace..

Eddie
South specialist Anthony Barnett told me
that the appearance of a title does not necessarily mean that on shellac
and vinyl the same take was used. For example: Eddies Blues
and Twelve OClock At Night are different takes on 78 and LP.
But Swinging the Blues is the same take on 78 RPM and LP. I cant
Give You Anything but Love was only released on 78 RPM, not on LP.
I have not yet found out on which vinyl LPs these were released. However,
all the Ethel Waters takes are the same on 78 RPM and on LP.

Editions
of Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog from the early nineteen fifties
mention these Continental LPs, later released on Remington:CLP 16004 - Charlie Parker: Bird Live with Sarah Vaughan CLP 16005 - Red Norvo: Mainstream Jazz CLP 16008 - Ethel Waters sings with Heard

Rudolf
A. Bruil. Page first published March 6th, 2001, and updated since.